Teacher Guide - "The Heart Sellers"

BY Lloyd Suh DIRECTED BY Jennifer Chang

Topics for

Teaching & Learning:

What’s Your Immigrant Story?

For this activity, students will need to take some time to visit with family members and learn more about their family’s history. Have students talk with someone in their family about their family immigrant story. Depending on their family, this discussion may be a first-hand account or may have very little information depending on family circumstances. Have students share their immigration story through a means that makes sense for your class: writing an essay, a creative writing first-person account, a digital presentation, an oral report, or some other creative means.

Immigrants in Milwaukee

American Immigration Laws and History

Holidays and Traditions Around the World

1. What holidays or traditions are important in your family? What is the cultural or familial origin of those traditions?

2. How do you connect with others you don’t already know? Do you like meeting new people? How do you feel around new people?

3. What sacrifices have you or members of your family made for each other? Do you think sacrificing for those you care about is noble or not always the best idea?

4. What values have you been taught by your family or community? Do those values have a cultural basis? How so?

5. Do you like making connections with those with whom you have a lot in common or those who have different interests or experiences than you? Elaborate on your answer.

Performers at Milwaukee’s annual German Fest.

Photo credit: Visit Milwaukee.

Immigrants in Milwaukee

The immigrant history of Milwaukee is rich and varied, but also fraught with many layered issues. Have students use the resource list in the PlayGuide to explore more about the stories of immigrants in Milwaukee. Students may also expand their research to other news media and more recent primary sources. Depending on the focus of your classroom, you could have students look at particular ethnic groups, specific time periods, social and political action related to immigration, or certain neighborhoods and how they have evolved. There are so many topics in Milwaukee’s history related to immigration that students can explore. Once students have completed their research, you can have them present it in a “science fair” style or with online formats. Having students share their research outside of the classroom with other students or the local community could also be an exciting option.

Celebrations and Holidays Around the World

In the PlayGuide for The Heart Sellers, students can read brief introductions to some holidays celebrated in Korea and the Philippines that Jane and Luna might have celebrated. Have students either do more research on one of those holidays or explore a different holiday from a cultural tradition that is not their own. As a class, make a calendar or timeline of the year, including the various holidays students have researched. Students should include a short description and some images for their chosen holiday.

Sharing Your Traditions

In the play, Luna and Jane attempt to celebrate a tradition that is unfamiliar to them. We all have traditions and holidays that are part of our cultural or familial background. Plan a day for students to share some of their cultural or holiday traditions with their classmates. How you share the traditions is up to you; students can give presentations, there can be a potluck, tables set up with displays, websites or digital resources, whatever feels right for your classroom and curriculum. After the sharing, have students reflect in writing about not only their own traditions, but some that they were able to experience through others.

Some questions to guide their writing:

• How do traditions connect us to others?

• What is special about my own traditions?

• How do my cultural traditions make me feel?

• Is it important to continue these traditions? Why or why not?

• What traditions did I learn about that I didn’t previously know?

Americanization School for new immigrants, 1919.

Photo credit: Rexnord Industries.

Immigrant Stories in Popular Culture

Immigrant stories are common in popular culture, whether talking about film, television, theater, or other media. Share with students an example of the portrayal of immigrants from popular culture and have students do a close reading of the example. This exercise may lead to some in-depth discussion about who tells the stories, how immigrants are portrayed, and other issues of how pop culture “others” people. Some choices that would be interesting for analysis:

• “Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)” from Hamilton Mixtape (Content warning)

• “A Shtetl iz Amerika” from Ragtime

• “The Immigrant” by Merle Haggard

• West Side Story

• Kim’s Convenience

• In the Heights

• The Joy Luck Club

• Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote: A Migrant’s Tale

American Immigration Laws and History

The history of immigration in the U.S. is complex and our PlayGuide only scratches the surface of this story. Have students read the timeline in the PlayGuide. Each student should choose one item on the timeline to look at more closely. Depending on where on the timeline their item falls, there may be many resources about their chosen topic, or not as many. Once students have completed their deeper dive into their assigned event, have them create an oral (and perhaps visual) presentation about the historical event or policy. If they find any primary source accounts from those impacted by the event, they should also share those with the class.

Advocating for Immigrants

Have students work in small groups to plan service projects that could help immigrants or refugees first arriving in Milwaukee. Their projects could also lean more towards advocacy and protest to promote changes or progress in immigration law. Once student groups have decided on their ideas, they should develop a step-by-step plan for implementation. If possible, students should then implement their plans, perhaps reaching out to local nonprofits in the process. Some ideas for projects to get them started: clothing or furniture drives for refugee resettlement, English language help or tutoring, bi-lingual picture book drives for local libraries and schools, creating a social opportunity or group for peers who are new to Milwaukee, etc.

Immigrant essential workers, their families, and supporters march for immigration reform, May 2022.

Photo credit: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.6: Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.7: Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.8: Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.1: Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.2: Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.4: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.9-10.5: Make strategic use of digital media (e.g., textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.

WI TP.R.12.h: View Performance: Demonstrate developmentally appropriate audience etiquette at a professional performance.

WI SEL 5.9-10 Social Awareness: Learners will be able to demonstrate empathy to others who have different views and beliefs.

WI SEL 9.9-10 Social Awareness/Self Awareness: Learners will be able to reflect on their own beliefs relative to different familial and societal norms.

WI SEL 13.9-10 Social Awareness: Learners will be able to support the rights of individuals to reflect their family, culture, and community within the school setting.

WI SEL 24.9-10 Decision Making/Social Awareness/Relationship

Skills: Learners will be able to independently create an action plan that addresses real needs in the classroom, school, and community.

CONTACT US:

Milwaukee Repertory Theater Education & Engagement Dept. 108 E. Wells Street, Milwaukee, WI 53202 www.MilwaukeeRep.com | 414-224-9490

The

CONNECT WITH US ONLINE:

For questions or to schedule a workshop, please contact: Ro Spice-Kopischke, Education Coordinator at rspice-kopischke@milwaukeerep.com or 414-290-5393

Like us on Facebook and follow us on twitter @MilwRep and @InsideRepEducation to hear about the latest news, special offers, and happenings at Milwaukee Rep!